Takeaways from Tallahassee – Bonus time

Bonus time

Many front-line workers will be getting $1,000 bonuses from the state this year thanking them for their dutiful service during the COVID-19 pandemic. First responders like firefighters, police and paramedics are getting checks and teachers too.

Thanks to Senate President Wilton Simpson, all 117 Senate district staff will also be receiving $1,000 bonuses for their service, which continued through the summer last year.

In letters sent to district staff, Simpson thanked them for their hard work and dedication.

“Like other front-line workers across our state, Senate District Staff worked tirelessly during the pandemic to address the myriad essential needs of our constituents,” Simpson wrote. “From assisting with re-employment claims to food banks to identifying testing and vaccine locations and more, you served as a beacon of hope for Floridians who, in many cases, felt like they had nowhere else to turn.”

March 2020 marked the end of that year’s Legislative Session, but it also marked the pandemic’s beginning in Florida.

“Constituent services are the most important operation of any Senate office and I want you to know how much I respect the critical work you do each and every day for the people of our state.”

Each of the 40 Senators has as many as four legislative assistants and they all earned it, said John Learn, an aide to Tampa Democratic Sen. Janet Cruz.

The summer is normally a time to decompress and research legislation, but staffers were instead tasked with fielding phone calls and emails from jobless Floridians, which Learn called mentally exhausting work.

“This summer, we all really became social workers, helping constituents at what was really a dire time for them,” he said. “It was up to us to try to help them navigate what was really a broken system that’s become a political football.”

“We didn’t really know much about the coronavirus at the time or how it was spreading. Information kept changing all the time,” Braynon-Moore said. “We were in gloves and people were in hazmat suits.”

Jones was in his final months as a state representative at the time, but Braynon-Moore said she was receiving 50 calls a day from constituents and was working weekends, too. A list of staff’s cellphone numbers began circulating on Facebook.

“Some of the calls we received were very hard to deal with because people were desperate,” said Dee Alexander, chief of staff to Fernandina Beach Republican Sen. Aaron Bean.

Some staffers would joke about the possibility of receiving emergency pay.

“We seriously never considered that we would be compensated in any way,” Braynon-Moore said. “This was just our duty.”

Calls have slowed down as more people head back to work. The unemployment rate is back down to 4.8%.

But jobless Floridians continue to reach out to the offices of their lawmakers — and sometimes other legislators.

And fighting the pandemic continues. On Friday, Jones’ office volunteered with the Florida Education Fund to provide personal protective equipment and other school supplies.

Friday was Learn’s last day in Cruz’s office. With his bonus, he plans to sip a stiff alcoholic beverage somewhere in the Florida sun.

Braynon-Moore plans to finish up her bachelor’s degree in political science, which she put on hold at Florida Atlantic University during the pandemic.

Alexander is planning to rent a car to surprise her mother for her 89th birthday. She lives in Oklahoma with Alexander’s sister and has remained locked down and still practices social distancing.

“I haven’t seen my mom in a year and a half,” Alexander said.

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Coming up, the usual assortment of tidbits, leftovers and not-ready-for-prime-time moments by Peter Schorsch, Drew Wilson, Renzo Downey, Jason Delgado, Haley Brown, and the staff of Florida Politics.

Take 5

The “Takeaway 5” — the Top 5 stories from the week that was:

Legislature ratifies Seminole Gaming Compact — Lawmakers this week ratified Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ 30-year deal with the Seminole Tribe that could bring in more than $6 billion by 2030. Lawmakers passed four bills implementing the Compact and regulating gaming in Florida. Assuming DeSantis approves the Legislature’s bill to enact the deal, it’s then off to Washington, where the state hopes to get the U.S. Department of the Interior’s approval, which isn’t guaranteed. The deal also faces an inevitable court challenge from No Casinos, a group that says the Compact expands gaming by adding fantasy sports contents to the list of approved games. Legislation expanding gambling must go to the voters first under 2018’s Amendment 3.

Freedom week and other tax relief signed — DeSantis signed this year’s tax relief package, including a “Freedom Week” tax holiday during the week of Independence Day. That and elongated disaster preparedness and back-to-school tax holidays are expected to bring are expected to bring $134.6 million in relief for Floridians. “We’re proud of being a free state, we’re proud of being open, and we want taxpayers to be able to benefit if they’re participating in all these things,” DeSantis said. The holiday covers sporting and live music events, state park admission, gym dues, and movie theater tickets for events held between those dates. It would also waive taxes on products like tents, sleeping bags, or even sunscreen purchased that week.

Dan Daley keeps fighting for standardbred industry — Among the bills lawmakers passed this week is one to decouple casinos at pari-mutuel facilities from the traditional races and games hosted at those sites. But Rep. Daley wants DeSantis to veto that bill after the House dropped a proposal to protect the standardbred horse industry by including the last remaining harness racing track in that decoupling. Decoupling casinos would pari-mutuels’ traditional operations would allow them to close those dwindling attractions but keep their business solely as a casino. Daley argues that leaving standardbred racing out of the deal would be devastating to the industry and the thousands of jobs associated with it.

Gainesville tests vaccine passport ban — Gainesville required people attending its Thursday city commission meetings to wear masks unless they showed proof of vaccination. DeSantis said that violates the “spirit” of his emergency order banning vaccine passports and “inhibits public participation in government proceedings.” A Gainesville spokesperson defended the move, calling it voluntary to show proof of vaccination. DeSantis also said it would violate an upcoming law limiting local governments’ abilities to place mandates, including vaccine passports. Violating that law would result in a fine of up to $5,000 per violation.

DeSantis vows actions against critical race theory — DeSantis continued fighting critical race theory in Florida, this time vowing to fight the academic movement in all its forms across the state. That comes as the Board of Education prepares to review a proposed rule that would prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in Florida K-12. The Governor signaled an eager willingness to remove any trace of the theory in a school’s education curriculum, even if it’s under a different name. “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig,” DeSantis said, adding that the state would play whack-a-mole with it if it has to quash the movement he’s called indoctrination.